RELIGION, EQUALITY, DIVERSITY: RED LEARNING CENTRE OPENS

At Forest Lodge Education Resource Centre, Charnor Road, this afternoon, for the launch of the refurbished RED (Religion, Equality, Diversity) Learning Centre. Invitations have gone out to members of SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religions Education) and to other organisations that would have an interest in the kinds of resources available here and the system for accessing them (that includes Global Education Leicester-Shire: and thanks to Claire Plumb for the lift!). Our special guest today is the popular and successful author for children and young people, Bali Rai. Some school pupils have come along (as have some mums) just to hear him read.

Leicester City Council is officially represented by Assistant Mayor Vi Dempster, Cabinet Lead for Children and Families. Now, I've long known that Councillor Dempster is Scots (the accent gives it away) but I've never asked where she might be from, originally. So, while I'm pouring her a cup of coffee, she tells me that she was brought up in Clydebank (although she was born in Glasgow, where she spent her earliest years). Clydebank is just over the border from Knightswood on the west side of Glasgow, where I spent my first 23 years. When I tell Councillior Dempster that I did my Highers at Clydebank Technical College, it turns out that she did too! Small world, eh?

I make sure that Leicester Council of Faiths gets its own library card so we can make good use of the RED Learning Centre.

In the photo above: Councillor Vi Dempster cuts the ribbon, officially opening the RED Learning Centre.

LABOUR OF LOVE & TRUE FAITH

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Labour of love and true faith 

It’s more than a huge, impressive white limestone temple; it’s also a symbol of modern Leicester – and Britain’s biggest jigsaw. Adam Wakelin had a look round the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir off Catherine Street 

It's hard to think of a more potent, self-confident symbol of where this city has come from and what it can do. A decrepit old saucepan and former denim factory, transformed into an impossibly grand £4 million Hindu temple – bought and paid for by the community it will serve, many of whom arrived as refugees in the 1970s with little in their luggage but ambition and a desire to build a better life.

That's a pretty strong message to send out. 

One day, after Leicester's image-makers have reproduced it endlessly on glossy paper to bring in tourists and businesses, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir may well be as ubiquitous as the Clock Tower, Curve and tree-lined New Walk – so familiar you almost stop seeing it. 

For now, though, the temple still carries the shock of the new. 

It slides, almost surreally into view, between the shops, industrial units and suburban semis of Leicester's Catherine Street. 

Surrounded by metal security fencing, not quite finished, shimmering behind a haze of dust, the temple makes your eyes boggle. 

The closer you get to its magnificent domes, pillars and intricate carvings in white limestone, the more impressive it gets. 

Sanjiv Patel, here to give me a guided tour with Nisha Popat, his fellow spokesperson for the project, points out some of the religious and cultural motifs that run through the building.Here, God is in the detail. 

Those things, says Sanjiv, gesturing to the three half-gherkin-like structures rising out of the roof, are known as shikhars. 

"They represent the mountain peaks of the Himalayas," he explains. "In Hindu tradition, the sages used to contemplate in the Himalayas." 

On top of the shikhars, peeking out from behind their protective wrapping, are gold painted pinnacles – "kalashes" – literally their crowning glories, says Sanjiv. 

The temple's six domes are called "gumats". Running along the edge of the roofline are flows of peacock tails. 

Lotus flowers and other blooms fold into one another through the stonework. 

The presence of the peacocks and lotus flowers, like everything else, are significant. Both symbolise peace and beauty in India. 

Everything was hand carved by craftsmen in Gujarat, brought over on a slow boat from India, and painstakingly assembled on site. 

"What you're looking at is basically a giant, 3D jigsaw," says project leader Divyesh Tailor. 

"The whole of this came in thousands of different pieces. It was a case of getting it all off the lorries, laying it out, working out what went where and putting it all together." 

He puffs out his cheeks. 

"It took some doing, believe me." 

We pick a path through the builders, watching our steps in the tyre troughs left by heavy machinery, and go inside. 

The wow factor doesn't stop at the door. 

A 15-metre frieze depicting Swaminarayan – a manifestation of God and the founding guru of this school of Hinduism – stretches out across the back wall of the marble-floored foyer. 

We move through to the first prayer room. The floor and walls are clad in brilliant white marble.Patterns on the ceiling draw the eye to the place where a deity will be installed. All is designed in accordance with Hindu scripture to concentrate the focus of worshippers on the deity, explains Sanjiv. 

Along the corridor, covered in underlay but not yet carpeted, is the main prayer room.In here stands a large, gilded wooden shrine or "sihasan", delicately carved with more peacock tails. 

The sihasan will house the deities – to be installed after being carried through the streets in a grand procession from Belgrave fly-over on Saturday, October 8. 

It is forbidden to take pictures anywhere inside until a consecration ceremony and the arrival of the deities. 

That will mark the building's spiritual transition from marble, limestone and mortar to a place of God. 

"It is the tradition that the deities are first to see it, so sorry, no photographs," says Sanjiv. "Not even the congregation has seen it yet. There's just been too much to do." 

Expectation has been on tiptoe for months. The sect's first temple was a modest semi on Doncaster Road. They moved into their temple in St James Street in 1980, but have long since outgrown it. 

"We've had a 30-year wait for this," says Sanjiv. "So, no corners could be cut. Everything had to be right." 

It's hard to find a fault. The building, in every sense of the word, is immense. 

The main hall, a gargantuan square space adorned with chandeliers made up of cascading lotus leaves, brings another gasp. 

The kitchens, set to be staffed by volunteers, boast facilities that would shame a top hotel.Function and form dovetail immaculately, but much still needs to be done. 

The inside and outside are what they are: works in progress. Everywhere you look, someone in a hard hat and hi-vis jacket is doing something. 

The temple will officially open on Sunday, October 9, an auspicious date chosen by the priests. Miss that date, and there won't be another one this year. 

So no pressure, then? 

"None at all," smiles Divyesh, a building surveyor and property developer, who has masterminded the temple's construction. 

It's been a challenge, he admits, one that has seen his life and business go on the back burner for almost four years. 

This, as you've already gathered, is no ordinary slot tab A into section B new-build. But the complications go well beyond load-bearing joists and putting domes on roofs. 

This is a place that has had to marry fundamental tenets of Hindu temple design – Vastu Shastra principles of directional alignments and geometrics that are laid out in the scriptures and can't be compromised – with modern, British building regulations. 

Two sets of architects have been involved: in-house BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir specialists in India – up to speed on all the religious specs – and Leicester's Kent Porter Warren Associates; experts in more secular rules and regulations. 

Countless e-mails have been bounced back and forth. 

The issue of car parking and congestion have raised some local concerns. 

There will be 100 spaces available for cars on site and nearby. 

Park and ride schemes will operate on busy festival days. Traffic won't be a problem, reassures Sanjiv. 

Getting the temple through planning took two years. 

Nature has had to be appeased by various rites carried out during the construction process. Before a digger moved in, there had to be a khatmuhurt – an inspection carried out by a priest to ensure the soil's suitability. This was followed by prayers to seek permission for the earth to be disturbed. 

A small pot, containing sacraments of five metals, was ceremonially buried under the place where the deities will sit in the main prayer room after the foundations were dug. 

This was to create an awareness that the earth is a dynamic ecosystem and man is to live harmoniously with other life forms. 

The fact that Divyesh has had to cope with all this, while bringing the temple in on time and in budget, does him great credit. If I was in charge of Leicester City Council or a PFI project, I'd give him a job now. 

"A lot of the money to build this has come from ordinary families," he says. 

"I went to one house and I could feel the springs coming through the sofa. They didn't have much, but they wrote out a cheque for £1,000. 

"They could have spent that on themselves, but they didn't. I saw it as my responsibility not to waste it." 

When all this is over, Divyesh and his family will go on a nice long holiday. 

"I'm looking forward to it," he says. "It's taken over my life and I'll be glad when it's finished."It's all been worth it, though, especially now. It's quite exciting, seeing all the plans coming to reality."

KILL LIST

Saw Kill List this evening at Phoenix Square. I've knocked myself out with the job over the past while and thought I could really do with something to blow away the cobwebs.

I've thought a lot about this film since seeing it and have much to say about it, in my alternate life as the (very) poor man's Mark Kermode - but not here. Let me put it this way. If we do the Faiths Film Festival next year and we want to put on something for the Satanists (of which there were just under 1,000 recorded in Britain in the 2001 Census) ...

DMU STUDENTS UNION COMMUNITY FAIR

Rahat Ahmad (left) and Minou Cortazzi at the Counil of Faiths stall

Today we're participating in the Community Fair at De Montfort University Students Union - a marketplace event for Freshers Week. We're up on the second floor, where it's light, bright and airy - a welcome contrast to the darker, sweatier environement in the O2 Academy at the University of Leicester, where we were yesterday.

One of the first people I see here today is Zubair Sidat (Vice President, Welfare), whom I first met during Discover Islam Week at DMU back in February. I interviewed him then and posted the video on YouTube. He's obviously been a busy man and we don't have much time to talk, but Zubair does mention that he'd like to have at least one activity in DMU during Inter Faith Week. I'm not sure whether he means the Students Union per se or the student Islamic Society - but we can get together and work that out another time.

Going around the displays, I spend some time chatting with the good people promoting Islamic Relief and have the welcome opportunity to reacquaint myself with Salim Yusuf Lorgat, their East Midlands Area Manager.

I also do the rounds with flyers for Leicester Speaks, drumming up interest and support for the launch event on Wednesday 12 October as well as for the week-long programme.

I have to say that I'm not in favour of packing up early at these events. If we're booked to be here till a certain time, I would rather be here till that certain time. I feel sorry for those visitors who turn up in good time to go round an event like this, only to find out that half the exhibitors have gone.

Oh, and that Nightline bear is here too - someone different inside (male this time, apparently yesterday at the O2 Academy in the University of Leicester it was a woman).

LEICESTER UNIVERSITY WELCOMES INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

To the University of Leicester, Percy Gee Building (aka Students' Union) this afternoon. We're supporting our friends in the International Chaplaincy with their display at the International Student Welcome Programme. I helped put up all nine banners from our exhibition in Queen's Hall, upstairs in Percy Gee on Monday morning for a couple of days of fairly relaxed engagement with new arrivals from overseas. Today everything has relocated downstairs into the O2 Academy for this more intensive marketplace event.

As well as providing information about the diverse faith communities in Leicester, we're helping offer a more personal service today, by helping students newly arrived in the city find an appropriate community with which to become involved or an accessible place of worship. I've brought with me our list of places of worship in Leicester and it helps us find the right places for a number of students who have arrived here from abroad. This printed list has been in use since 2004 (long before my arrival at Leicester Council of Faiths). Today I realise for the first time that it doesn't include any Roman Catholic churches. How can that have escaped everyone's notice for seven years? And if it has been noticed, why on earth are we still using it?

Something else I notice today is that some students who have come here from other parts of the world where they have not been used to freedom of expression and of thought appear to look on the opportunity to experiment with religion or belief the way we might more traditionally have thought of students experimenting with sex and drugs and rock’n’roll. Interesting thought …

In the photo: Council of Faiths banners on the International Chaplaincy display - Nightline Bear and friend in the foreground.

SACRE AT UPLANDS JUNIOR SCHOOL

At Uplands Junior School, Melbourne Road, Highfields, this afternoon for the scheduled meeting of Leicester SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education).

We see the results to date of a survey circulated around Leicester schools asking if they would be interested in being supported by SACRE – and, if so, what form they’d like that support to take. We have written responses from 19 schools:

• Beaumont Lodge Primary School
• Catherine Junior School
• Charnwood Primary School
• Evington Valley Primary School
• Glebelands Primary School
• Humberstone Junior School
• Inglehurst Junior School
• Lancaster Boys
• Mayflower Primary School
• Merrydale Infant School
• Mowmacre Hill Primary School
• Northfield House
• Overdale Infant School
• Queensmead C.P. School
• Rowlatts Hill Primary School
• Scraptoft Valley Primary School
• St Barnabas C.E. Primary School
• Stokes Wood Primary School
• Willowbank Children’s Hospital School at Leicester Royal Infirmary

Given the recent discussion in the Leicester Mercury about collective worship in local schools (see blogs passim), it’s appropriate that we’re presented here with a draft statement from SACRE, clarifying matters. I’m going to make that a separate blog entry in its own right: it’s too important to allow it to be buried here. Similarly, I’ve posted a separate blog entry based on a handout distributed at this meeting about the Equality Act 2010 and its impact on schools, as well as a workshop task on what makes a good SACRE member.

Under Any Other Business at the end of the meeting, I’m able to share information about forthcoming activities and events:

• Christians Aware Course on the Psalms at Christchurch;
• Philosophy Panel at St Paul’s;
• “Speedfaithing” at Phoenix Square during Leicester Speaks;
• Inter Faith Week exhibition at Highcross;
• Faiths Film Festival at Phoenix Square;
• Favourite Faith Photo exhibition at Leicester People’s Photographic Gallery.

VCS CEO LEADERSHIP NETWORK

An early start this morning with a breakfast meeting of the Voluntary and Community Sector Chief Executive Officers (VCS CEO) Leadership Network. We're meeting at Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL), starting at 0745. I've been in Caffe Nero, Market Street, since half an hour before, going over the paperwork.

I've mentioned before that we don't have a Chief Executive Officer at Leicester Council of Faiths. It might appear daft if we did, with only 1.5 full time equivalent (FTE) staff (the likely CEO being the 1). However, not all the organisations involved in this network (certainly not all of those here this morning) have someone with the actual title of CEO, so I'm not the only one in this position (also, I've got the agreement and support of our Chair to do this).

When I attended the last meeting of this network, I was the only one (well, the only male) not in suit and tie. In keeping with that well known phrase, "If you can't fight, wear a big hat" (a good piece of wisdom that I first heard from one of my ex-mothers in law) I've decided to raise my game, sartorially, for this one.

As well as ourselves, there are ten VCS organisations represented here this morning:

• Action Deafness
• Action Homeless
• Apex
• Care and Repair
• Community Advice and Law Service
• Emerald Centre
• Giving World Online
• Leicestershire Aids Support Service (LASS) 
• LeicestHER Day Trust
• Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living
• Lighthouse Learning
• MRC Community Action
• The Race Equality Centre (TREC)
• Stride

We review notes of our meeting with the Mayor (Sir Peter Soulsby) and Deputy Mayor (Councillor Rory Palmer) at our last meeting (at LASS on 18 August) and a number of actions decided on then and shared among the members.

Beyond these, we discuss what this network is for and how it should go about achieving its aims as it expands. When asked to consider the question, "Why are we here?", these are the answers that spring to mind from my perspective with the Council of Faiths: Leicester's faith communities are often isolated - not only from each other, but also from other agencies, groups and organisations in the city; even the networks that faith communities have established among themselves tend to be isolated from other networks; faith communities are too big, too important and make too distinctive a contribution to the image, life and reputation of Leicester to continue to be isolated in this way. They should have someone here who can represent them and speak up for them.

This network may work best by sharing support and learning for its members. We consider how formal it might need to be in order to serve these ends. in the end, we agree that it's better for us to be driven by interest and action rather than the "gubbins" of running an organisation.

We finish shortly after 0930 - just in time to dash across the road to Voluntary Action LeicesterShire and join in the latest in a series of meetings on Transforming Local Infrastructure.

CHRISTIANS AWARE COURSE ON THE PSALMS: 1

At Christchurch, Clarendon Park Road, this evening for the first session in a new course on the Psalms. The course is offered as part of Faith Awareness, the Inter Faith programme of Christians Aware.

There are 32 people in attendance, the largest number I've seen here. The room is packed - so much so that it's decided we'll be meeting in a bigger space next week.

Our speaker is Father Fabian, of Leicester's Dominican Priory. Barbara Butler intoruces him as a theologian who works with young people in the church, with a special interest in international students.

Father Fabian started by reading the 23rd Psalm, arguably the best known and most popular of all the Psalms (in the translation from the Book of Common Prayer):

The Lord is my shepherd;
 therefore can I lack nothing.
He shall feed me in a green pasture,
 and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort.
He shall convert my soul,
 and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness for his
  Name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
 for thou art with me;
 thy rod and thy staff comfort me.
Thou shalt prepare a table before me in the presence of them
  that trouble me;
 thou hast anointed my head with oil,
 and my cup shall be full.
Surely thy loving-kindness and mercy shall follow me all the
  days of my life;
 and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Father Fabian asks us to hold in our minds two basic truths about the Psalms: that they are poems and that they are Jewish.

As poems, they speak in images, they don't use everyday terminology or style (but use rhythmic, heightened language, not everyday terminology or style). As a reader or listener, you're not standing on the outside looking in. In the case of a poem, you're drawn into the lived experience. Poems have an unbounded sort of quality, in that they are open to meaning beyond that immediately intended by the author.

As Jewish texts, their origins and meanings have to be understood and appreciated in the context of Jewish culture and history. While he does not intend to mean that we can't do anything with the Psalms without being an expert on Judaism, Father Fabian does ask us to consider in what ways a Christian (or anyone of religious affiliation other than Jewish) can relate to the Psalms. This is clearly a topic of special interest to me (all the more so in that I'm giving a talk on the Psalms from a Bahá'í perspective in a fortnight's time). I'm rather sorry that we're not going to be listening to anyone offering Buddhist, Hindu, Jain or Sikh appreciations of the Psalms as part of this course.

Father Fabian gives us a historical tout of the place of the Psalms in Christian worship and how this has changed down the ages - with particular reference to the changes he has seen in his own lifetime.

In her closing remarks, Suzanne Jones thanks Father Fabian for his talk, which she describes as having set out a "groundplan" for the rest of the course.

Future sessions will include perspectives on the Psalms from Bahá'í, Jewish and Muslim perspectives; evenings devoted to Christian and Jewish singing of the Psalms; hands on experience of Creative Writing and Letterpress Printing based on the Psalms.

In the photo above: Father Fabian with Beate Dehnen.

RAISING OUR BANNERS AT LEICESTER UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' UNION

At the University of Leicester Students' Union this morning, where I'm helping folk from the International Chaplaincy set up their stall at the start of a three-day welcoming event for international students.

Our friends at the International Chaplaincy have borrowed the whole of the Council of Faiths exhibition and have put it up as part of their exhibition in the Queen's Hall at the Percy Gee Building.

I'll be back on Wednesday afternoon (along with a few other volunteers from our various faith community members) to help boost numbers on the stall during the International Students Welcome Fair.

SEWA DAY

Today is the second annual Sewa Day. Here's some information from the Sewa Day website. There's lots more of interest and inspiration to be found there.

Sewa is a universal concept, which involves performing an act of kindness without expectation of reward. It is performed selflessly and without ulterior motive.

As a concept, Sewa in embedded in Indian traditions, and is actively promoted by different cultures and faiths - as the core belief is the same - to sacrifice your time and resources for the benefit of others without wanting anything in return. 

On Sewa Day, thousands of good-hearted people across the world come together to perform Sewa and experience the joy of giving in its truest sense. By participating in this collective endeavour, we hope that the seeds of Sewa are watered so that acts of kindness and public service are performed more often. Sewa Day is a catalyst in making this happen. 

Previously, participating groups have organised Sewa Day volunteering projects in old people’s homes, homeless shelters, schools in disadvantaged areas, hospitals and hospices, country parks, conservation areas and city farms – all with an aim of making a positive difference to someone else’s happiness and prosperity. Join us this year to make our dream a reality.We’re all concerned about disadvantage, deprivation and ignorance. Sewa day provides an opportunity to do something positive that makes a meaningful difference to someone else’s quality of life. 

We discourage all projects that involve fund-raising; as the purpose is to give your time. So, let’s focus on that. 

It really doesn’t matter if you’re a pensioner or a young child, whether you’re physically able or not, or whether you black, brown or blue. 

All that matters is that you commit to doing a good deed on Sewa Day, which takes place on Sunday, 25th September 2011. 

Sewa UK is a secular, non-political UK registered charity.

While Leicester Council of Faiths is not, itself, participating in or promoting any particular activity for Sewa Day 2011, I couldn't let the occasion go by without reflecting on how selfless service is treated in the scripture or inspirational texts of our eight member faith communities.

In the extract from the Sewa Day website above, it states, "As a concept, Sewa in embedded in Indian traditions, and is actively promoted by different cultures and faiths - as the core belief is the same - to sacrifice your time and resources for the benefit of others without wanting anything in return." This does not suggest (indeed, it counters the suggestion) that such a concept and practice is the domain of the faiths, religions or philosophies of Indian origin alone. They can surely be said to be common to all religions, sometimes being expressed in more general terms as "The Golden Rule"). But whether it is called sewa, service, charity, caritas - or some other term - it is one of the core principles, central practices and essential virtues of the spiritual life. It may be expressed in a myriad forms and practices, but its presence enriches the world and its absence devalues religion itself.

Here are some quotations from each of our eight member faiths that I have found myself. No doubt you could come up with many more, faithful reader.

Bahá'í

"This is worship: to serve mankind and to minister to the needs of the people. Service is prayer." ('Abdu'l-Bahá)

Buddhist

"The greatest quality is seeking to serve others." (Atisha)

Christian

"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms." (1 Peter 4:9-11)

Hindu

“Give. Give with faith. Do not give without faith. Give with sensitivity. Give with a feeling of abundance. Give with right understanding.” (Taittiriya Upanishad)

Jain

"In making a gift one gets over greed, which is a form of Himsa, and hence gifts made to the worthy recipients amount to a renunciation of Himsa (i.e., amount to observance of Ahimsa)." (Purusharthasiddhi-upaya)

Jewish

"He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing." (Deuteronomy10:17-19)

Muslim

"Worship God, and join not aught with Him in worship. Be good to parents, and to kindred, and to orphans, and to the poor, and to a neighbour, whether kinsman or new-comer, and to a fellow traveller, and to the wayfarer, and to the slaves whom your right hands hold; verily, God loveth not the proud, the vain boaster" (Qur’án, 4:40)

Sikh

"A place in God's court can only be attained if we do service to others in this world." (Guru Granth Sahib)